Colorado elector and Greeley resident decides to support Hillary Clinton in Monday’s vote

In their efforts to use the Electoral College to change the predicted outcome of the presidential election, the Hamilton Electors cite Alexander Hamilton’s writing as their name’s inspiration. In particular, the group references Federalist No. 68, in which Hamilton wrote: “The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of president will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single state; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole union.”

While most people cast their vote for president last month, Jerad Sutton just decided Thursday who he'll vote for.

He's not late.

The 33-year-old Greeley resident and middle school math teacher is one of Colorado's nine electors and on Monday he'll be one of the 538 electors across the country who will actually pick the next president of the United States.

Despite what many may think, the presidential race isn't decided on Election Day in November.

Each party selects a slate of electors for each state, and when someone casts their vote for a presidential and vice-presidential ticket, they're actually casting a vote for the electors in their state chosen to represent that ticket in the Electoral College. The electors for the losing party — Republicans in Colorado's case — don't do anything after that point.

On Monday, 538 electors — including Sutton — will cast their votes for the next U.S. president. Usually that vote is little more than a formality. A state's electors vote for the candidate who won their state. It's the common practice and some states, including Colorado, even have laws requiring it.

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However, this year a group calling themselves the "Hamilton electors" want to change that as part of a long-shot attempt to stop Donald Trump from becoming president.

The name, Sutton explained, serves as a reference to U.S. founding father Alexander Hamilton, who wrote in "The Federalist Papers" his thoughts on the need for and importance of the Electoral College to ensure only qualified candidates become president.

Stemming from Colorado and Washington, the group of electors hopes to find a compromise to elect a different candidate — neither Trump nor Hillary Clinton — as president. Since the movement consists almost exclusively of Democrats, and Republicans possess the majority of Electoral College votes — because Trump won them in the November election — the group's hope is to convince electors to unite behind a moderate Republican.

When Colorado's Democratic electors started discussing plans to challenge the status quo of the Electoral College and change the predicted outcome of the election, Sutton was called to join in. He attended a meeting with other state electors in late November and seriously considered voting for a moderate Republican if the movement gained enough support, he said.

The group started drawing public attention, and its movement made headlines across the country. In Colorado two electors have gone to court trying to overturn the state's law requiring them to vote for the presidential candidate who won the state in November. So far, the courts have turned away their efforts.

Sutton said he didn't decide to vote for Clinton because it's what state law says he has to do. He made the decision because it's what he wants to do, he said Thursday night.

His decision likely won't make much of a difference for the movement.

The Hamilton electors probably wouldn't succeed in any case, said Colorado State University political science professor Kyle Saunders.

"I think it's possible, but I think it's still very unlikely," he said. "Simply because most of these electors are chosen because they are very deep partisans who believe in the cause of their party and as such are probably unwilling to go against what their party tells them to do."

The Democratic electors may not care as much about changing their votes to stir up the pot, because that might be the only way they get to have a say in the outcome in the election, Saunders said. But it's not likely Republican electors will look at it the same way.

Electors will almost certainly pick Trump as president Monday, but Sutton still hopes the actions and voices of the Hamilton electors might create change, if nowhere else than in the process that selected him.

Although he's a Colorado elector, Sutton dislikes the Electoral College, and he said he suspects others might not like it either after this election and the Hamilton electors' efforts to use the system to change the outcome.

"The real election day is Dec. 19, not Nov. 8. That's what I really, truly want people to understand. And if they don't like it we need to push Congress to amend the Constitution, so they can really vote for president," Sutton said. "I'd rather we all get to choose, but that just isn't the system."

Federalist Papers

In their efforts to use the Electoral College to change the predicted outcome of the presidential election, the Hamilton Electors cite Alexander Hamilton’s writing as their name’s inspiration. In particular, the group references Federalist No. 68, in which Hamilton wrote: “The process of election affords a moral certainty, that the office of president will never fall to the lot of any man who is not in an eminent degree endowed with the requisite qualifications. Talents for low intrigue, and the little arts of popularity, may alone suffice to elevate a man to the first honors in a single state; but it will require other talents, and a different kind of merit, to establish him in the esteem and confidence of the whole union.”